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Melissa is a Program Project Officer with the Civic Tech Innovation Network at Wits Governance School, based in South Africa. She holds an honours degree in Journalism and Media Studies and a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Linguistics and Journalism and Media Studies from Rhodes University.
Her work at the Civic Tech Innovation Network and Jamlab (also at Wits) focuses on digital innovation in Africa, including digital journalism and media, and promoting the growth and development of appropriate and effective uses of digital technologies in connecting government and citizens, in public participation, in transparency and accountability, and in delivering public services. In 2019 she was part of the Index on Censorship Youth Advisory Board – a project by Index on Censorship aimed at engaging with young people aged 16-25 from around the world and gathering their views on freedom of expression issues.

Dunia is a legal consultant, who has previously worked as an Almami Cyllah Fellow with Amnesty International (United States) and as a Human Rights Officer at the East Africa Regional Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Dunia also worked as a Program Officer on Ending Violence against Women and Girls at UN Women Ethiopia, and on child protection issues with UNICEF Ethiopia.
She holds a Master of Laws in National Security from Georgetown University Law Center and a Master of Arts in Human Rights from Addis Ababa University. Dunia is the first Africa Fellow for Georgetown’s LAWA program to earn a Master of Laws in National Security. She earned her bachelor degree in law from Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. Dunia is a member of the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU), the Ethiopian Bar Association, and the Ethiopian American Bar Association.
For her fellowship, she will study the role of the internet and access to information during 2020 elections in Egypt, Ethiopia, and Somalia.

Jean Paul, a psychology and education sciences graduate of the University of Burundi, has been involved in digital rights policy and internet governance with the DiploFoundation and Internet Society since 2007. In 2010, he was awarded a fellowship at the United Nations Internet Governance Forum Secretariat.
His CIPESA fellowship will focus on the political tensions in Burundi, including the recent internet disruption during elections; and ICT sector reforms by the new government, related to cybersecurity, privacy, and data protection.

Jimmy Kainja is a lecturer in media, communication, and cultural studies at University of Malawi, Chancellor College. His main areas of academic and research interest are communication policy and regulation, journalism, new media, (mis)information and disinformation, freedom of expression, and the intersection between media and democracy.
Kainja has been a blogger since 2007 and is a founding member of Africa Blogging, which he co-edited between 2015 and 2019. In addition, Kainja has written for a number of reputable international media organisations including the BBC, The Guardian, Aljazeera, and New African. Locally he is a regular contributor of analytical articles to Nation Publications Limited newspapers.
In the context of the February 3, 2020 Constitutional Court nullification of the presidential elections and scheduled fresh polls in June 2020, and in parallel to the Covid-19 pandemic, Kainja will study hate speech and misinformation, data protection, and access to information.

Tusi, the former Executive Director of the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), will study the availability and use of digital technologies to combat the spread of Covid-19 in South Africa, with a focus on the criminalisation of misinformation, and obligations on service providers to remove fake news from their platforms. Furthermore, she will study the country’s readiness for electronic voting to comply with social distancing and other movement restrictions during the upcoming local government elections.
Tusi is a co-founder and member of the Steering Committee of Re-Create, a coalition of South African creators who advocate for fair and balanced provisions in the ongoing copyright amendment process. She holds a Masters in Management degree in Public Policy from Wits University. Her particular interests are freedom of expression, technology, and human rights